Monday, August 22, 2005

james wolcott is still my hero

after a momentary lull on his blog, he's back and better than ever. few liberal pundits are as choleric and irascible, yet also witty, smart and just funny. one of his latest posts on cindy sheehan addresses the right's smear campaign against her. I dont usually post about politics on this blog, unless its related to LA's urban development, and I've had to resist temptation to quote wolcott too many times. but no more. he's just too good. so perhaps I will intermittently stray from architecture and urban issues to pay homage to my favorite political pundit. here's this week's:

"I wonder if the civil rights protests were happening today, who at the cable shows would feel compelled to give equal time to the John Birch Society?"

Actually, the rightwing has gotten more sophisticated than that. If this were the Sixties redux, they wouldn't put on a John Bircher opposite a civil rights leader, they'd find some Southern Negro to testify that they don't need some interloper like Martin Luther King marching into their communities and stirring up more trouble than it's worth. Or some Larry Elder or Larry Cain lift-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps pro-business cheerleader to argue that federal intervention isn't needed to uproot segregation, that the free market will remedy black society's ills if only these self-appointed troublemakers would butt out.

That's how the game is played now. Pit members of the same minority against each other for the benefit of privileged white bystanders hoarding their poker chips.

But I think there's something else festering in the mind of Sheehan's slimers: our old friends Rampant Sexism and Snobbish Classism. Men in authority, and those opinonmakers who polish that authority to a fine shine with their diligent tongues, resent being questioned by women. They consider it nagging, and nagging reminds them of their mother or wife, or a wife that reminds them of their mother.